{"id":7024,"date":"2015-10-17T00:05:04","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T07:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7024"},"modified":"2015-10-16T17:49:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T00:49:53","slug":"the-battle-axe-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/10\/17\/the-battle-axe-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"The Battle-Axe of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou are My battle-ax and weapons of war:
\nFor with you I will break the nation in pieces;
\nWith you I will destroy kingdoms;
\nWith you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider;
\nWith you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider;
\nWith you also I will break in pieces man and woman;
\nWith you I will break in pieces old and young;
\nWith you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden;
\nWith you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock;
\nWith you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen;
\nAnd with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers.
\n\u201cAnd I will repay Babylon
\nAnd all the inhabitants of Chaldea
\nFor all the evil they have done
\nIn Zion in your sight,\u201d says the LORD.
\n\u201cBehold, I am against you, O destroying mountain,
\nWho destroys all the earth,\u201d says the LORD.
\n\u201cAnd I will stretch out My hand against you,
\nRoll you down from the rocks,
\nAnd make you a burnt mountain.
\nThey shall not take from you a stone for a corner
\nNor a stone for a foundation,
\nBut you shall be desolate forever,\u201d says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:20-26)<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God uses tools. Babylon had served its purpose in bringing God\u2019s punishment against his people. The Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem, taken away all the nation\u2019s wealth, and hauled off its leading citizens into captivity, all on account of the continued refusal of his people to listen to God, to worship God, or to treat one another properly.<\/p>\n

But, once the discipline had been successful, it was time to return things to the way they had been. The Israelites remained God\u2019s people; God\u2019s treaty with them was still operative. And so the tool he had used against his people now needed to be punished. For this purpose, he chose the Persians, who would act as his battle-axe against the Babylonians. He would repay the Babylonians for their excesses, for going beyond what was necessary to achieve God\u2019s goals with his people. Despite their usefulness, the Babylonians were guilty of mistreating God\u2019s people and for that they had to pay. For that was also part of God\u2019s contract with Israel: those who cursed him, God would curse, just as those who blessed Israel, God would bless.<\/p>\n

God is not unbiased when it comes to how he treats those who belong to him. Family gets special privileges, and no matter how mad God gets at his family, woe to those who dare to harm it. God can\u2019t help but take care of us.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou are My battle-ax and weapons of war: For with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms; With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; With you I will … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7026,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024\/revisions\/7026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}